Having a prominent role in some cultures, wine is one of the most consumed beverages all around the world.
The traditional wine-making industry started in Europe and has grown into a large industry. Today, the average daily consumption of wine is around 1 and 2 glasses of wine per day for women and men, respectively.
As the industry grew, wine counterfeiting and adulterating also started to increase rapidly. Many well-known brands' value has been impacted by this.
A few industry leaders have thus initiated wine purchases through the blockchain. This way, the brand, and industry can maintain their authenticity and provenance along the wine supply chain via intergrading and establishing a transparent wine supply chain. Let's explore how.
By integrating the supply chain, all the industry participants, from the farmers and original wine source to the consumer, are brought under the radar of blockchain.
Since market participants are scattered along the current ecosystem, communication becomes time-consuming, as the verification processes are carried out after back-and-forth to confirm the trade.
Thus, via blockchain, all the documentation and verification processes are completed in real-time, which increases product visibility. The blockchain eliminates relying on intermediaries, making the supply chain fast, secure, immutable, and less expensive.
Next, the market participants of the wine industry network are as follows:
By integrating blockchain into the wine supply chain, the industry not only reduces the cost and brings in traceability but also makes this supply chain process easier.
The diverse buyer ecosystem from individuals, hospitality participants, and auction houses can be abundantly benefited from the blockchain-induced wine supply chain.
Additionally, wine enterprises have introduced two traceability options to further improve the tracking processes.
Chai Vault, a beverage manufacturing company based in San Francisco, is the first brand to use an anti-fraud solution for wine and other spirits trading to reduce the circulation of fake beverages.
Their individual wine bottles are encoded with a combination of RFID or QR codes, and as soon as the ownership is transferred, the buyers can verify the authenticity and provenance of every individual bottle on-chain.
The brand uses unique identification for each bottle which is registered and authenticated through The Chai Method (TCM) authenticator license. Other brands across countries have also obtained TCM certification by undergoing their inspection protocols.
As soon the NFTs started taking a physical form, wine brands immediately hopped onto the trend. This strategy acted as a concrete foundation to enhance the authenticity of the wine industry as wine brands started to slowly integrate NFT-based wines.
This is done practically by connecting a digital NFT to the physical bottle, such that, once the NFT is bought, the buyer would automatically receive a physical wine bottle and vice versa. Thus, ownership of the NFT would be transferred after the purchase of the physical wine bottles.
Wine production entities and wine brands are utilizing the potential of blockchain technology such that it has facilitated the efficient supply of premium wine quality and authentic wines. This may also result in the decline of the wine adulteration and counterfeiting market.
